Under the current guidelines, Tu Luong Khuong--tied to the criminal street organization Asian Gang (AG)--faced a range of 63 to 78 months for selling nearly five kilograms of MDMA to a confidential informant working for law enforcement in 2013.

But U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter--the county's most experienced criminal judge--agreed with a request by federal prosecutors to comply with punishment reduction recommendations made by the United States Sentencing Commission, approved by Attorney General Eric Holder and effective if Congress doesn't interfere in coming weeks.

As a result, Carter sentenced Khuong to a term of 51 months plus the gangster will have to undergo supervised probation for three years upon his release from incarceration.

The judge also ordered the convicted felon--who was born in 1992 and committed his latest offense (serving as a drug courier) while on probation for a prior crime--to stay away from AG and to resist wearing any of the gang's symbols.

An additional prison sentence is being served by another defendant in the case: 42-year-old Thanh Van Tran (a.k.a. Kevin), 97 months. Tran presently resides in a privately-run federal prison in Kern County and is scheduled to be freed in March 2020.

R. Scott Moxley’s award-winning investigative journalism has touched nerves for two decades. An angry congressman threatened to break Moxley’s knee caps. A dirty sheriff promised his critical reporting was irrelevant and then landed in prison. Corporate crooks won’t take his calls. Murderous gangsters mad-dogged him in court. The U.S. House of Representatives debated his work. Pusillanimous cops have left hostile messages using fake names. Federal prosecutors credited his stories for the arrest of a doctor who sold fake medicine to dying patients. And a frantic state legislator literally caught sleeping with lobbyists sprinted down state capital hallways to evade his questions in Sacramento. Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club and been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists.